Software is not responding, and it remains unresponsive on your computer? You don’t need to panic; you can force the software to close in just a few clicks. The normal operation will resume, and the infected application will be restarted.
Computer science is imperfect. Operating systems and software are becoming more complex. They often require millions of lines to correspond to as many instructions. This makes it common to be confronted by bugs.
Sometimes, a bug can completely block an application on computer or laptop. Then, it is impossible to react. There is no other way to fix a bug in this situation than to close the application and restart it.
It is common to find that unresponsive software is not able to be closed normally by simply clicking on the close box located right above its title bar. Nothing happens no matter what. The software is not responding, so the title bar colour changes. Force shutdown is the only solution. An “execution” can be done in two ways.
It is important to note that changes made to the document used in the blocked program are not lost. Although it can be annoying, it is better than getting stuck. In some cases, the software will automatically restore the most recent version it has saved in a cache.
How can I forcefully close nonresponsive software using the taskbar?
If your mouse still reacts but the blocked software is not preventing you from using Windows 10 or other open applications, then try the “soft” method by first going through the taskbar.
- Right-click on the icon of the blocked program in the Windows 10 taskbar
- If there are more than one open, you can click Close Window or Closing All Windows in the menu.
- The infected software has been forcibly shut down. You may need to repeat the operation multiple times.
- If you are lucky, you can relaunch the blocked program to continue your work.
How can I forcefully close an inoperable application using Task Manager?
If this fails, you can try the second method with Task Manager.
- Enter the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift + Esc or Ctrl+Shift + Esc depending on your keyboards.
- The Windows 10 Task Manager window appears.
- Find the software that is blocked in the list. The mention (doesn’t respond) is placed next to his name.
- Click on to display the name of the block software, and then click on the End Task button.
- The software has been closed. You can try to recover the document that was open at the time the crash occurred by restarting the software.
